Thursday 10 December 2015

OneNote hints and tips

There are some really useful little hints and tips I have picked up on my OneNote journey so far that I thought I would share. To put them in context, I use a Surface Pro3 (Windows 8) for work so it is mainly based on the desktop version on there and I am using Firefox. I have an Android phone, so mobile comments are related to that.


Tags - use tags!! I can't believe I didn't use tags. So much easier to find things and to group all the same thread together.


Pin your task bar to the top - saves many clicks!








Sending an email to OneNote - great for putting all those emails somewhere and then keeping everything together and tagging it!

OneNote for Classroom is my teaching lifesaver. See my inquiry blog about how I have used this in the classroom.

Looking forward to being able to embed video when I finally get OneNote2016

Using quick notes - open then drag to the section you want it in.

Did you know there was a built-in calculator? You can do any simple calculation - for example: 35.9*12.19 = and press the space bar for the answer.

Install a clipper in your browser to send a page, region or article directly to your OneNote. Unfortunately, this doesn't work in Edge yet!! It works best with IE as you can clip a selection, not just an article or page as for Chrome and Firefox.

I love using Office Lens on my phone to send photos straight to OneNote. Very useful in lectures or for documents I want to add without having to scan and attach.

And as a bonus for the Windows users - 12 shortcuts every educator should know....

More to come as I do more....


Thursday 3 December 2015

MIE Expert first connection call

Wow - what a buzz. An amazing, inspiring hour from awesome presenters and lots of great ideas and motivation.
I thought I would put a few of the links and ideas here for any #MIEexperts - I am a visual learner so really like things written down!!!
 Some things are specific to MIE Experts (I have put these at the bottom) but a lot are useful for everyone. If you are not signed up at the Microsoft Educator site - you should be! Go there now.
There are some amazing opportunities for anyone to have free online Professional Development.

Check out these educasts. They will be on demand if you can't attend at the time.




If you want to be creative and learn how to use technology to disrupt a boring classroom environment by putting learning in the hands of the students then you need to check out the #hacktheclassroom event.



Get involved in the Skypeathon on Dec 3 and Dec 4 - a great way to be connected.
Even those who are on holiday can participate as guest speakers.

I really enjoyed the session with Rafranz Davis (@rafranzdavis) who is an MIE expertwith great ideas about "Building your brand".
Her advice:
  • Your twitter handle should be your name – own it.
  • She suggests getting a domain name of your own – when someone wants to know who you are, who is better to tell them but yourself.
  • Search yourself – important you know what is being said and what is out there.
  • Check out Rafranz's book "The Missing Voices in EdTech:Bringing Diversity into EdTech".
  • Follow people outside education, follow people who are inspiring. Follow professionals in other fields.
  • Share the work of others. When you read a blog post share it and attribute it.
  • Contribute – teachers feel like what they have to say is not good enough. If you have an idea, share it – it will be new to someone. It is valuable because it came from you 
  • Use tweetdeck
  • People she suggests to follow: #MIEexpert of course!!#IStedepln
    #Hourofcode
    @TechChef4u
    @reginaschaffer
    @alicekeeler
  • Best platform for starting a blog: Wordpress, Medium is a good platform, has a built in network and can immediately share with twitter. Weebly – students can get free accounts – get a group of people to share codes, you can get credits.
  • Tweet hint – read the tweets of those before you follow them
My personal view is that I like Blogger purely because I started on it when writing a blog for school - but you need a Google account for it. I love using Weebly for websites though and many of my students have found it really easy.

Some notes specific to MIE Experts:
Twitter for Sonja Delafosse https://twitter.com/sdelafosse
Social Chorus: Minnia Feng https://twitter.com/minniafeng
Email her at mifeng@microsoft.com if you'd like to be featured in Daily Edventures!
Social media 101 sway with info in it that we heard today.


It takes 24hrs to have the Expert badge show up.

New educator community – help to merge partners in learning network with new community
Help button – orange one at bottom will do a work ticket to change emails over etc.

MIE experts should use the #MIEExpert and the #MSFTEdu hashtag

Do local regional face to face meetings with other MIE experts.
March 9 – livestream Budapest conference

Use Teachmeet to empower educators around you. How are you building a community of teachers in your area to make them amazing?

The hour went so quickly - I am just pleased I managed to get some notes and ideas down so I could reflect on them again. I am really looking forward to engaging with everything and everyone.